A lease is a property lease, which is based on an officially drawn up and legally certified agreement stating that one of the parties is provided for temporary use by one of the parties for temporary use to the other side. The owner who rents his apartment is called the landlord. And a person who will temporarily use the housing or other property provided to him for a contractual fee is called a tenant. Do you know what threatens the owner of the illegal rental of an apartment? Responsibility in what size can he bear? Russian law will tell us something new in this regard.
Profitable or Unprofitable
From the point of view of the owner, not concluding a lease agreement is beneficial for him, because this is avoiding taxes and the lack of the need to spend time on paperwork. But times are changing, and modern legislation has raised the question: all citizens living in Russia and making a profit for any transactions they make are required to pay tax to their country. After all, first of all, the state is concerned that the treasury is getting its part. The second question arises from the fact that the owners often rent their apartments to very dubious individuals, because of which they themselves can suffer and create a threat to society with such an act. And so now, for such enterprising and unlucky owners, a penalty is imposed for the illegal rental of housing.
What punishment is due
Illegal business (renting an apartment without drawing up a contract of employment is interpreted that way) provides for the following system of punishment:
- The owner will be required to pay the full amount due.
- Pay a penalty for the missed deadline for tax payment. This is calculated as follows: the unpaid tax amount multiplied by 1/300 of the refinancing rate and the number of days of delay (refinancing rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation).
- Pay a penalty for non-filing a tax return in the amount of 5% of the unpaid tax for each month of delay (no more than 30% of the indicated amount and no less than 1000 rubles).
- Pay a penalty for the violated tax payment deadline, which is 20% of the unpaid amount. If it is proved, among other things, that the tax was not intentionally paid, then the size of the fine will increase to 40%.
It is also necessary to take into account the fact that tax concealment can lead to criminal liability (article 198 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The main risks of the landlord
Illegal rental of an apartment, the responsibility for which the owner will have to bear, is fraught with, and besides, many problems. We list them by points:
- Significant fines and even the possibility of criminal punishment (imprisonment of 6 months with the amount of unpaid taxes from 100 to 500 thousand and up to 3 years with the amount of non-payment in the amount of 500 thousand rubles and more).
- Damage to an apartment or property. If the rental of housing took place without an appropriate agreement, it will be difficult to prove that some home appliances disappeared from your apartment, that earlier the doors and windows were whole, and the walls were not covered with traces of paint and markers.
- Unpleasant surprises in the form of unexpected expenses. These appear if the tenant has left debts for utilities after his stay.For example, very large telephone bills may come if your tenant liked to chat at leisure with any of the relatives living in the other side of the world.
- Cheating by the employer. There are many cases when an apartment was rented to one person, but completely different turned out to be in it, which, as it turns out later, was negotiated with the tenant behind the back of the owner (that is, without his consent). In addition, there are frequent cases when the rented housing was used as a brothel or settled by a large number of strangers, for example, up to 20 guest workers from neighboring countries.
Complete insecurity
The risk is not always champagne, it may turn out to be a complete loss of your own apartment. For example, if during an exuberant feast, half-demented tenants accidentally set off a fire. Who will be in demand, if it was you provoked by the situation - the illegal rental of an apartment. Where to complain now, from whom to demand a refund?
In this case, the state is unlikely to be able to represent your interests, because you yourself tried to hide your income from it. It is unlikely that there will be a person who will entrust his car to a stranger just because he seemed trustworthy to him and even showed his passport. But why then can you risk your apartment?
How illegal rent is calculated
Despite everything that may threaten the illegal rental of an apartment (responsibility to the state, damage to property by unscrupulous tenants), many still prefer to risk and evade the legal registration of themselves as a landlord. How then do the authorities become aware of such cases?
Firstly, often victims of dishonest employers themselves seek help and thereby open themselves up. Secondly, there are situations when tenants behave noisily, brazenly, violate the "law of silence after 23 hours." And when the neighbors, driven to despair, seeing that their requests to behave quieter are ignored, they call a police outfit so that they sing a lullaby to overexcited neighboring tenants, this is where the fact about which the tax does not know is revealed - the illegal renting of an apartment is obvious.
And if many migrant workers living in an apartment rented by neighbors are in the way, then you can seek help not only from the police, but also from the Federal Migration Service. Now the government is actively developing measures to identify hidden landlords not by chance and not with the help of exhausted neighbors, but by other legal means. And therefore it is illegal for a renter to start thinking about withdrawing his business from the shadows.
How can an ordinary person lawfully rent housing
Do I need to be an entrepreneur in order to be able to rent out my apartment? Not necessarily, any person can become a landlord, and an individual as well. First of all, make sure that your apartment is insured. And then it is already possible to advertise the rental of housing. Certain types of apartments may require the consent of their neighbors. An apartment rental agreement between individuals is drawn up by filling in special forms. In them, paragraphs describe all conditions that suit both sides.
Rental and rental of housing under the law
The legislation of the Russian Federation has provided several taxation options for renting their homes. Individuals use the provided standard procedure for paying personal income tax. As for individual entrepreneurs, they can choose from several options:
- general taxation regime;
- simplified tax system (STS);
- patent.
Under the general regime, the tax amount for the homeowner will be 20% of the profit. It will be necessary to submit a quarterly declaration at the place of registration to the tax authorities.
The simplified system (USN) allows the taxpayer to choose the method of forming the tax base himself. If only profit is included in the base, then the rate of 6% is applied. A 15% tax is levied on income less expenses incurred. A declaration must be submitted annually.
The most preferred option for entrepreneurs, for whom the source of profit is the income received from the rental of housing, is the patent system. To launch this regime in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the potential amount of income per year is determined on a legislative basis, and for specific options for entrepreneurial activity. This value becomes the tax base. Moreover, the tax rate is 6%. A tax return does not need to be provided at all.
All answer
Does illegal and illegal renting of an apartment mean liability for the tenant, or will the landlord only be punished? The tenant, in turn, is required to register for the duration of his stay in the area that he rents. With illegal rent, of course, this does not happen. This is literally a double violation of Russian law (on the part of the lessor and the tenant who did not make this registration) if the tenant is a resident. But if a foreigner temporarily occupies the living space, then this only exacerbates the situation.
Collusion for two
So far, in our country it is very difficult to make the owner of an apartment responsible, in most cases, because it is almost impossible to prove that he received money from the tenant. The owner, as a rule, always refers to the fact that this is his old friend or good acquaintance, or even a distant relative, and he naturally does not take money from him.
Punishing a tenant for violation of registration is also not so simple, since for this you need to know exactly what is the length of his stay in this apartment. Nevertheless, both parties should be aware that their actions are illegal, and understand that they face punishment for this.
Preventive measure
Of course, the proven fact of illegal rental of housing will be primarily unpleasant to the owner, since it was he who did not pay the tax. And the punishment is implied specifically for this. As a result, he will not only be obliged to pay everything in full, but also to pay a penalty, as mentioned above, and a fine of 20% of the income received.
Everything else, according to Art. 122 of the Tax Code, in case of repeated violation, if it is proved that it was committed intentionally, the amount of the fine is doubled. And a fine will also be levied on a non-submitted income statement. The size of the fine in this situation varies from 5% to 30% of the total amount of tax hidden by the owner.
Conclusion
Legal rental of property tax is a guarantee of state protection of the landlord’s property. However, apartment owners often do not find it necessary to conclude the required lease agreement with the other party (tenant). So far, they do not see for themselves in this benefit, except the need to pay out of pocket. But this document makes it easy to avoid between the landlord and the tenant all kinds of inevitable contradictions that can often be resolved only in court. It may take time to understand your benefits.
